Category: 19th Century

Nevins Hall …. We’ve all been there, perhaps to attend a town meeting, a holiday concert, a wedding, or a prom. In 1994, President Bill Clinton gave a speech there, and in 2016, author David McCullough capped off “Framingham Reads Together” with a talk about his book The Wright Brothers.  Political debates and early voting also have taken place in this space.  Ever wonder how it got its name?    

Our story begins in Methuen on July 30, 1839 with the birth of a son to David and Eliza (Coffin) Nevins.  David Jr. was the first of two sons.  His brother, Henry Coffin Nevins, was born four years later on January 10, 1843.  David Sr. (1809-1881)  was a successful businessman, banker, and textile mill owner.  He owned Nevins & Co., a dry goods house located in Boston,  the Pemberton Mills in Lawrence, and The City Exchange Banking Company of Boston.  The City Exchange Banking Co. eventually merged with the other Nevins businesses and became the Nevins & Co. Bankers & Negotiators of Business with offices on Devonshire St.

After completing his education in Boston and Paris,  David Jr. went to work with his father.  He was employed on the banking side of his father’s business and managed the City Exchange Banking Company for a time.   As his father aged, David, Jr. took a greater role in the running of these companies (Cutter 978).  After their father’s death in 1881, David and his brother Henry inherited the family businesses.  With the brothers at the helm, the Nevins’ concerns flourished. 

In April 1862, David, Jr. married Harriet Francoeur Blackburn (1841-1929), the daughter of one of his father’s business associates.  David and Harriet lived with her father, George Blackburn, at his home at 48 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.

In the spring of 1870 the couple purchased a farm formerly owned by H. G. White, Esq.  The property, near Park’s Corner in South Framingham, extended from Winter Street to Farm Pond.   Hillside, as it was called, became the Nevins’ primary residence, where they spent eight months each year.  For years, they also maintained a home at various locations in Boston for the winter season.  In 1885, David bought the Hotel Tudor, an elegant apartment building on the corner of Beacon and Joy Streets in Boston.  An apartment on the top floor became their permanent winter home.  

After purchasing Hillside, David extensively remodeled and added to the house and farm buildings.  Many modern features were added to the house including gas lighting and indoor plumbing. The gas for lighting was produced right on the Nevins’ property. Another innovation was the recycling of refuse from the house.  The refuse from the plumbing was piped to a reservoir where it was then used to fertilize the fields.  David had the cow stables remodeled to accommodate horses. A new stable and carriage house was built as well as a large house for the seven farmworkers who lived there in 1871 (Forbes).  

By 1871, Hillside encompassed about 175 acres of land.  Nevins employed a large number of landscapers to maintain the park-like grounds and gardens, and annually spent thousands of dollars on trees and plantings.  He opened the estate’s grounds to the people of Framingham to visit or to take a drive through the scenic gardens. In 1897, Nevins had a nine hole golf course built on his land for the Framingham Golf Club.  This was the first golf course in Framingham and it was called Pincushion Links (Herring 207).  The course was located south of Hillside and beyond the Sudbury River in the area of current day Pincushion Road off of Winter and Fountain Streets.  The following spring, he had a clubhouse constructed on the course.

Nevins, like so many of the men of his era, was a horse breeder.  He raised many award winning stallions at Hillside, including perhaps his most famous, Bay Fearnaught.  Bay Fearnaught was considered one of the best roadsters in New England at the time (Merwin 127).   His stallions were exhibited at the annual South Middlesex Agricultural Society fair and other New England fairs, winning prizes in 1871, 1872 and 1876.  David’s interest in horses went beyond breeding. In 1870, he served as the secretary in the Boston Trotting Association.  He was a member of the Boston Driving and Athletic Organization, a group of Boston businessmen interested in the sport of turf racing. In 1879, David was the group’s vice-president. And to round out his animal related activities, in 1877, he was one of the directors of the MSPCA.

By the summer of 1898, David was in poor health.  On the advice of his doctors, he and Harriet traveled abroad to the thermal baths at Bad Manheim to take advantage of the healing power of the mineral rich waters. Despite the baths and excellent care of his German physicians, his health continued to decline. On August 24, 1898, just six weeks after leaving America, David died of heart failure (“David Nevins” 6).  His funeral took place in the parlor at Hillside on September 10, 1898.  

Before the Nevins’ left for Germany, David completed his last will and testament.  In it he left the house and possessions to his wife for use during her lifetime. Upon Harriet’s death, their daughter, Elise Nevins would be the beneficiary.  If Elise died childless, the will provided that the personal property go to the Nevins Memorial in Methuen and the bequests be honored. The bequests granted $10,000 to the Home for the Aged in Framingham and $100,000 to the Town of Framingham for a new town hall.  In 1954, Elise Nevins passed away without heirs. After the bequests were fulfilled, the residual of the estate was divided equally and given to twenty Massachusetts charities selected by the executors. Framingham Union Hospital was one of these (Framingham Union 1955). 

And now you know why Nevins Hall is so named.

Facts

• Eliza Coffin Nevins was the daughter of Jared Coffin of Nantucket, one of the most successful ship owners during the island’s whaling days.
• “Methuen Duck Cloth” was manufactured by the Nevins’ and was used world-wide for sail cloth and tent for the tropics.
• David, Sr. was the co-owner of the Pemberton Mills when the north wall of the factory collapsed on January 11, 1860.  Fire then consumed the building.  A devastating industrial calamity in which 115 people were killed or missing and another 165 were injured.  He rebuilt the mill adding many safety features (The Lawrence).
• The name Pincushion Links is credited to Mrs. Nevins. She thought that Merriam Hill topped with tall pine trees looked like a pincushion. The golf course was built near “Pincushion Hill.” (Herring 207)
• Framingham Golf Club was organized in the early 1890s.  In the years following Nevins’ death, the club changed its name to the Framingham Country Club and acquired the William Temple estate on Gates Road.
• According to the 1880 Census, the Nevins’ adopted a son and a daughter after suffering two stillbirths in 1863 and 1865.  Only their daughter Elise survived them.

---

Bibliography

“Autumn Products.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 20 Sept. 1877. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3009244525/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=7a198406. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

“The Beacon Park Races.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 2 Sept. 1879. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3006600585/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=e0d82f57. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

City of Framingham.  Website.  https://www.framinghamma.gov/1052/Nevins-Hall. Accessed 17 Oct. 2022.

Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs: Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts.  Lewis Historical Pub., 1908.

David Nevins. Boston Daily Advertiser, 25 Aug. 1898, p. 6. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3007059877/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=book mark-NCNP&xid=158f0a6d. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

“David Nevins Resident of Framingham 30 Years Before Death in 1898.” Framingham News, 29 Apr. 1954.

“The Farmers’ Fairs.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 21 Sept. 1876. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3006555123/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=7b0e5cc4. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

“FIFTH TO DIE.: CHARLES H. FRYE SUCCUMBS AT CITY HOSPITAL. ANOTHER IN THE LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE SHARON WRECK. HIS WIFE HAD ALSO LOST HER LIFE THERE. DOUBLE FUNERAL WILL BE HELD AT REVERE. BELLS TOLLED AND FLAGS AT HALF MAST IN THAT TOWN. BELLE TOLLED AT REVERE DIED FAR FROM HOME. DAVID NEVINS OF BOSTON AND SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, PASSES AWAY AT BAD MANHEIM, GER–WAS ABROAD SIX WEEKS. AT THE MARINE HOSPITAL SOLDIERS RECEIVING TREATMENT THERE ARE DOING FAIRLY WELL. OLIVETTE GOING TO FERANANDINA.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Aug 25, 1898, pp. 12. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/fifth-die/docview/498917569/se-2.

Forbes, A. A. “Framingham Farm Notes, No. 2.”  New England Farmer. 25 Nov. 1871.

Herring, Stephen W. Framingham, an American Town.  Framingham Historical Society, Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

The Lawrence Tragedy.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 12 Jan. 1860. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3009813383/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=d0358bd0. Accessed 20 Dec. 2022.

Merwin, Henry Child. Road, Track, and Stable.  Little Brown & Co., 1892

“MORGAN–NEVINS.: BOSTONIAN WEDS METHUEN HEIRESS, AND GUESTS ARE ENTERTAINED IN TENTS ON SPACIOUS LAWN.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Jun 10, 1906, pp. 11. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/morgan-nevins/docview/500603436/se-2.

“Multiple Classified Advertisements.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 21 Apr. 1870. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3006458009/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=e900cd92. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022. 

“New England Fair.” Lowell Daily Citizen, 6 Sept. 1871. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3001749385/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=95d09fc6. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022. 

“The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 17 Nov. 1887, p. 4. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3006793082/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=bookmark-NCNP&xid=faad9284. Accessed 15 Nov. 2022.

“SOME LARGE PUBLIC BEQUESTS.: WILL OF DAVID NEVINS FILED FOR PROBATC- S1OO,000 FOR FRAMINGHAM TOWN HALL -METHUEN REMEMBERED.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Sep 15, 1898, pp. 8. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/some-large-public-bequests/docview/498937451/se-2.

“TOWN CLERK 46 YEARS.: BENJAMIN F. BAKER OF BROOKLINE DIES AT HIS HOME-ONE OF THE TOWN’S WELLKNOWN CITIZENS. EULOGIZED BY PASTORS. DAVID NEVINS CARRIED TO LAST RESTING PLACE. MOURNED BY MANY.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Sep 11, 1898, pp. 5. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.bpl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/town-clerk-46-years/docview/498933679/se-2.

Josiah Adams (1781-1854) was the fifth child and second son born to Moses and Abigail (Stone) Adams. While little is known of Josiah’s childhood, we do know that he was educated at home by his father (New 156).  Moses, a Harvard educated minister residing and preaching in Acton, was a firm believer in the value of education.  Beside his own children, Moses also prepared some of the local boys for admission to college.  

After graduating from Harvard in 1801, Josiah went on to study law with Thomas Heald, Esq. He was admitted to the bar in 1807.  In 1808, he came to Framingham and set up his legal practice in Central Square just east of Benjamin Wheeler’s store.  After several years, Josiah moved his law office into his home which was  located just south of High Street and up the hill from The 1812 House. 

One wonders why a highly educated lawyer would choose to move to Framingham at the beginning of the nineteenth century.  At that time, Framingham was a small community.  Central Square had a mere twenty seven houses within a half mile radius of the Meeting House, Nobscot was farmland, Saxonville was barely settled, and South Framingham was wilderness (Adams 2).   Perhaps it was family ties that brought him here.  For you see, Josiah’s mother was the daughter of the Honorable Josiah Stone of Framingham.  At any rate, he not only came, but stayed, and became an influential member of the community.

Josiah had quite the personality.  He was a man of strong likes and dislikes, detested hypocrisy, and spoke his mind.  He possessed a good sense of humor and loved to play practical jokes and tell funny stories. An example of his humor is found in a conversation with Chief Justice Shaw about a recent discovery of wheat kernels in a mummy case in Egypt.  When planted, these kernels actually sprouted and produced a crop …”of mummies?” exclaimed Josiah.  “No, of wheat!” responded the Judge (New 162).

Josiah was an old school lawyer skilled in real estate law.  He was endowed with a great deal of common sense, integrity, and a high sense of professional ethics.  As a tenacious and resourceful litigator, he never undertook unnecessary cases. He was not one to overcharge his clients.

Early in his tenure in Framingham, Josiah became involved in local politics.  This involvement would continue throughout his life.  He served as a selectman from 1812-1815. According to Herring (136), he was chosen by Town Meeting as its Moderator, a position he held for the best part of the next twenty-four years.   Josiah was selected as a delegate to the 1820 convention to revise the state constitution.  In 1827, he was elected to one term as a Representative to the General Court. Josiah replaced  the Reverend Charles Train who lost favor with the voters due to his fiery temperance sermons. From 1840-1842, he was appointed to the Governor’s Council.  He also served two terms (1844-1850) as County Commissioner of Middlesex County.  

Like his father, education was very important to Josiah.  He was a supporter of the public schools and took a great interest in the fledgling Framingham Academy.  He served as a trustee for the Academy from 1820 to 1852 at which time it was merged into the high school.  Josiah’s interest in education also extended to the library. 

In 1809, Framingham’s library was housed in Martin Stone’s tavern.  The tavern was located in Central Square across from Wheeler’s store in the vicinity of modern day Main Street and High Street (Herring 121).  A committee of leading citizens including Josiah Adams was formed in 1815 with the purpose of re-organizing the library.  Shares in the Social Library, as it was called, cost four dollars and the annual fee was fifty cents.  The library possessed four hundred and forty three books which were loaned out for sixty days at a time.  Through gifts and purchases the collection increased to approximately six hundred volumes.  This library eventually evolved into the Framingham Town Library in 1854, the predecessor to the current Framingham Public Library (Temple 378).

Among Josiah’s most important accomplishments is the part he played in founding the Framingham Bank.  In 1832, Massachusetts General Court issued charters for ten new state banks.  Framingham was awarded one of these charters.  This was a major event as the closest banks were located in Concord, Dedham and Worcester (Herring 138). This new bank not only served the residents of Framingham, but also the residents of the surrounding towns.  The Framingham Bank, which opened in 1833, was located in Central Square on the south side of the Turnpike.  Josiah was selected as President, an office he held for several years.  Charles Merriam was chosen as Secretary, and Rufus Brewer as Cashier. 

 As you can see, Josiah Adams was Framingham’s leading citizen in the first half of the nineteenth century.  Through his extensive involvement in the political, civic, and professional life of Framingham, he earned the moniker “Squire of Framingham”.  A title he inherited from the aging Jonathan Maynard.  Josiah died at the age of seventy-two years of paralytic shock and is buried in Church Hill Cemetery, Framingham, Massachusetts.

---

Facts

1. Born: November 3, 1781 in Acton, Massachusetts; died: February 8, 1854;  Married Jane Park (d. May 22, 1861) of Windham, New  Hampshire on February 8, 1810. The couple did not have children.  
2. Josiah Stone: Selectman, Town Treasurer, Town Clerk, Representative, Delegate to the Provincial Congress of 1775-6, State Senator and Counselor, Special judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
3. Adam’s first office is pictured in Captain Daniel Bell’s painting of Framingham Common in 1808. He is standing outside his office door talking to Isaac Fiske, a lawyer from Weston and Register of Probate for Middlesex county for many years.
4. Adams’ house has not survived, and was located on present day Adams Road.
5. Framingham Academy was incorporated March 1, 1799 (Temple 339).
6. Library committee members were: Rev. David Kellogg, Rev. Charles Train, Benjamin Wheeler, Nathan Stone, Major Larson Buckminster, Jesse Haven, Col. Jonas Clayes and others (Temple 378)

---

Bibliography

Adams, Walter. “Early Lawyers of Town.” Framingham Evening News. 24 May 1943, pp. 2.

“Josiah Adams.”  Find a Grave.  Memorial ID 58644585,  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58644585/josiah-adams. Accessed 20 March 2022.

Herring, Stephen.  Framingham: An American Town.  Framingham Historical Society.  The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

Merriam, John McKinstry.  Sketches of Framingham.  Bellman Publishing Co., 1950.

New England Historic Genealogical Society.  Memorial Biographies of the  New  England Historic Genealogical Society, Vol. 2, 1853-1855. The Society, 1881.

Temple, Josiah H.  History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. A special Centennial Year reprinting of the 1887 edition.  New England History Press, 1988.

The intersection of Edgell Road, Water Street and Edmands Road has always been a busy crossroads. In colonial times, today’s Water Street and Edmands Road formed the East-West path connecting Saxonville and Marlborough. In the mid-1700s, improvements were made to the South Path and Sudbury Road, which is today’s Edgell Road. These road improvements enticed more and more people to settle in the area. By the mid to late 1700s the intersection was home to many businesses, including Captain Isaac Clark’s carpentry shop, Ebenezer Boutwell’s tinsmithry, J. Winch’s brick masonry business and David Patterson’s blacksmith shop and tavern, as well as a school house.

David Patterson (1739-1809) built his blacksmithy and tavern in Nobscot in 1758 on the North West corner of Edmands and Edgell Roads. Patterson, a Revolutionary War veteran, also built a frame for a house in Nobscot which he sold to Jonathan Maynard. Maynard moved the house frame to Framingham Centre and finished it into a Georgian home. In 1794 Patterson sold his business and property to Solomon Brackett (1767?-1842) of Natick. Brackett, a blacksmith, moved his family into the tavern building while operating his business out of Patterson’s smithy. The tavern now became known as Brackett’s Tavern.

Several years later, Brackett went into business with Amos Parkhurst, a baker from Weston. A bakery in the area was greatly needed, as the nearest one was located in Westborough. Brackett and Parkhurst built their bakery on the western portion of the property. The bakery building contained plenty of storage space, a cracker machine, a meat chopper, and two thick walled ovens which were fueled by wood from tree trimmings and woodlot waste bought from the locals. The bakery made bread, crackers, cakes, and pies. Potato yeast was also fermented. The baked goods and yeast were delivered daily to surrounding towns by horse and wagon. In addition to the successful bakery business, many of the family settled in the immediate area. This busy commercial corner soon became known as Brackett’s Corner.

Solomon Brackett and his wife Lydia (Parkhurst) Brackett (1775-1851) had nine children. Ruby (1794-1867), Josiah P. (1797-1865), and Tapley (1799- ) were born in Natick. Ruby never married. Josiah P., a baker, married Susan Edmands.  Eliza (1802-1891 ) married Samuel Cutting and lived on the Cutting farm on what is present day Water Street.  Amos (1804-1866) was a veterinary surgeon. He and his wife Elmira Morse lived in Framingham and then Worcester. William (1807-1890) married Mary P. Smith of Sudbury and ran a store at Brackett’s Corner. David Kellogg (1810-1823) died at the age of 13 and is buried in the Church Hill Cemetery.  Mary W. (1811-1887) married Gilbert J. Child, a baker. They made their home just north of the bakery.  Lydia K. (1816-1903) married Elbridge G. Eaton, a carpenter, lived at Brackett’s Corner just east of Hop Brook.  

After Brackett’s death in 1842, the bakery was run by his son Josiah P. and his son-in-law Gilbert Childs. Later, his grandson David Kellogg Childs took over its management. Then in 1870, David Kellogg Childs closed Brackett’s bakery and moved to Marlborough. The bakery had been a mainstay in the area for 70 years.  

Today, if you travel a short distance west on Edmands Road from Nobscot, you will see Brackett’s Tavern, now a private residence. The building was moved to this location in the 1970s when the Edmands House apartments and a gas station were built on that corner.

Facts

• Brackett’s Corner was later called New Boston because of all the commercial endeavors which were located there.  When the railroad came through, and a Post Office was established, its name was changed to North Framingham.  Confusion between the North and South Framingham railroad stops lead to the area once again being renamed:  this time, Nobscot.
• The Brackett Tavern was located on the land now occupied by the Edmands House apartments and T. D. Bank at the corner of Edmands and Edgell Roads.  In the 1970s, it was moved from that corner to 175 Edmands Road.
• Lydia Parkhurst Brackett was the niece of Amos Parkhurst

---

Bibliography

Bacon, E. Eugene.  “Brackett Corner Bake Shop” Framingham News 17 May 1944.

—–. “Brackett Corner, New Boston, North Framingham, Nobscot.   Framingham News 11 Mar. 1934.

—— “The Old-Time Brackett Bakery at Brackett Corner, Nobscot.  Framingham News, 02 July 1937.

Herring, Stephen W. Framingham: An American Town.  Framingham Historical Society and The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

Map of Framingham, 1857.  Framingham History Center Collection. 1857.

Nixon, Warren.  Map of Framingham, from actual surveys taken by Jonas Clayes and Warren Nixon.  Pendleton’s Lithog., 1832.

Temple Josiah H.  History of Framingham, Massachusett, Early Known as Danforth’s Farms, 1640-1880.   A  Special Centennial Year reprinting of the 1887 edition. New England Press, 1988.    

In nineteenth century America, the exhibition of so-called “freaks of nature” was a popular and accepted form of entertainment.  These exhibits were promoted as being morally uplifting and educational (Fordham 208).  Audiences included not only the curious from all social classes, but also physicians and scientists interested in studying human anomalies. There were different kinds of exhibitions: small traveling shows, permanent museums, and sideshows attached to traveling circuses.  

There were three kinds of “human curiosities” found in the exhibitions: natural, man-made, and people with unusual talents or skills (Fordham 211).  Natural curiosities included conjoined twins, oversize or under-size humans, those with mental or behavioral differences, and armless or legless humans.  Man-made curiosities were people who had altered their bodies, such as those who were covered with tattoos, or the giraffe-necked women.  The third category featured sword swallowers, fire-eaters, and contortionists!

Though these shows are credited with providing employment to many who would have otherwise been ostracized from society and impoverished, they were also rife with examples of exploitation, racism, and ableism.  As such, the stories of the individuals who spent their lives starring in these shows are widely varied, with some finding their stardom to be enriching and empowering, while others were actively disenfranchised and abused.  The story of Dollie Dutton is, sadly, illustrative of the story of many other sideshow stars, as well as of the later vaudeville and motion picture child stars who followed her.

On June 28, 1853 in Framingham, a little girl was born destined for national fame as a “natural curiosity”.  Alice Marie Dutton (1853-1890), daughter of David and Ellen (Davis) Dutton, was a perfectly formed infant weighing only two and a half pounds at birth.  Her small birth weight was a harbinger of her future stature.  For you see, Alice suffered from proportional dwarfism. She was literally a miniature human being.  When she was seven years old, a newspaper article described her as:

 “Tiny as the smallest fairy, she is also as beautifully formed; the delicately rounded limbs, fair skin, waving ringlets, and large and lustrous eyes, making her stand forth a living impersonation of the ‘Queen of the Fairies’ (“Fairy”).”

People from all over the Dutton’s neighborhood and beyond came to see this very special little baby.  When Alice, who was called Dollie, was only six months old, her father decided to capitalize on his daughter’s uniqueness and the public’s curiosity.  He took Dollie into Boston and exhibited her in a tent at the Public Garden.   After doing this for eighteen months, another exhibitor convinced Dollie’s father to show her for a fee at the Boston Music Hall.  This was the start of her career in the entertainment business.  Dollie’s older sister Etta, was also a little person.  Dollie and Etta were exhibited together during this first stage of her career.

In 1857, Dollie’s aunt, Mrs. Sarah P. Davis of Salem, Massachusetts, assumed the management of her career from her father.  Sources don’t indicate why this change in her management was enacted.

To enhance Dollie’s performances, Aunt Sarah arranged for her to take dance lessons from Sylvanus Kneeland Jr., a popular instructor in Boston (Sansonetti).  As her manager, Sarah accompanied Dollie as she travelled around the country to performance venues.

Etta’s death at age ten in 1859 marked the beginning of Dollie’s solo career.  Despite what was likely the traumatic loss of her sister, Dollie — weighing thirteen pounds and standing two feet tall — charmed audiences in almost every state in the Union and Canada. In 1860, when Dollie was only seven years old, she entertained five hundred thousand people at her levees in New Orleans, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Burlington, Vermont, Boston, and New York City.   During her six week stay in Boston, forty thousand tickets were sold (“History”). With admission to one of her levees, costing fifteen cents for adults and ten cents for children, it was estimated that she earned about fifty thousand dollars that year (“Varieties”).  It is not clear whether Dollie herself actually benefited from her earnings.  Dollie was one of the most renowned child entertainers of her day, and was as big a draw as General Tom Thumb!

When touring, Dollie would perform two one hour long levees each day, one in the afternoon and the other in the evening.  In each performance she would sing solos, dance the polka, and perform alongside other entertainers and musicians.  These entertainers included other little people such as Miss Sarah Belton, a singer, and Miss Wilhelmina Kappas, a German dancer.  To highlight her smallness, she would stand beside either a “giant” like F. Decker, the Ossian Giant Boy who was seven feet tall and weighed 300 pounds, or an ordinary sized child her own age.   Dollie did have some singing talent as she was praised in the press for her clear, distinct voice (“Dollie Dutton”).  There was nothing more spectacular than Dollie’s entrance into the room.  Sometimes she would pop up out of a little basket used for carrying flowers.  Other times, she would be carried in while standing in the palm of her father’s or a manager’s hand.  In addition to her levees, Dollie also toured the United States with General Tom Thumb’s Troupe.

Dollie retired from public life when she was eighteen years old.  It was reported that she was difficult to manage, and sometimes would refuse to go on stage.  When this happened, her manager was required to give refunds to everyone in attendance (“Difficult”).  Though the sources don’t speak to Dollie’s perspective, it is little surprise that she began to assert herself as she finally reached adulthood.  One can only guess that she had tired of a performer’s life on the road, a career she had not chosen for herself.

On June 15, 1874 she married Benjamin Franklin Sawin (1856-1905) in Natick, Massachusetts.  Benjamin was of normal stature.  The couple had one child who survived only a few hours. The marriage did not last.  When Dollie left Benjamin, she moved in with her family in Natick.

Dolly was committed to Worcester Insane Asylum in 1882 suffering from dementia caused by domestic troubles (“Multiple” 1882).  What these “domestic troubles” were is not clearly stated in the historical record.  In that era, however, it was not unusual for “difficult” women to be hospitalized or incarcerated.  She spent the rest of her life in the Asylum.  She died on June 6, 1890 of dementia and epilepsy.   Dollie’s passing was reported in newspapers all across the United States.  Alice Marie “Dollie” Dutton Sawin is buried in the Dutton Family plot in The Main Street Cemetery, Hudson, Massachusetts.

Facts

• Siblings: George William, 1848-1935; Jeanette (known as Etta), 1849-1859; Ellen Frances, 1851-1858.  George and Ellen were normal in stature.

• Parents: David Dutton, 1825-1888,  a shoemaker; Ellen Davis Dutton, 1823-1900.  Married April 30, 1846 (Wayland 69)
• Levee: a formal reception of visitors or guests.
• Dollie’s age, height and weight were often inaccurately reported to portray her as older and smaller than she actually was for promotional purposes. Her year of birth appears as 1853 (Massachusetts birth records) and 1855 (Find a Grave).  Her full adult height is reported ranging from 22 to 29 inches.  
• Stage name: The Little Fairy.

---

Bibliography

Bogdan, Robert.  Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit. University of Chicago Press, 1988.

“Difficult to Manage.” The Hopewell Herald, 29 Nov. 1882.  Ancestry.com.  

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8599/?name=dollie_dutton&keyword=dollie+dutton. Accessed 14 Oct. 2020.

“Dollie Dutton.”  Cleveland Morning Leader, 21 Nov. 1860.  Newspapers.com.  

https://www.newspapers.com/image/75696082    Accessed 13 Oct. 2020.

“Dollie Dutton Dead.” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 12 Jan. 1890, p. 5. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3003062585/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=cb5f54d4  Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

“Dollie Dutton’s Levees, at the Assembly Buildings, are every day and evening thronged with many hundreds of intelligent persons, who manifest the greatest interest in the little creature.” North American, 8 May 1860. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3009291828/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=86e95aa3  Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

Dutton, David.  History of The Little Fairy, Dollie Dutton.  David Dutton, [1859?].

“Fairy Legends Becoming Verified.” Cleveland Daily Herald, 24 Nov. 1860. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3005091759/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=bc7ec864  Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

Fordham, B. A. “Dangerous Bodies: Freak Shows, Expression, and Exploitation.” UCLA  Entertainment Law Review, 14(2). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1g32z0dx  Accessed 10 Oct. 2020.

“Freak show.” Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 Nov. 2014. 

library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/freak-show/609347. Accessed 13 Oct. 2020.

“History of the Little Fairy,” Miss Dollie Dutton.”  Burlington Weekly Sentinel 28 Sept, 1860. Newspapers.com. https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=18277690&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM2NTE2NTU1OSwiaWF0IjoxNjAyNjEwMjYwLCJleHAiOjE2MDI2OTY2NjB9.KyynZVuXMe59XslTFCxodRMOXhg9YslSjauvPYc9eIY  Accessed 13 Oct. 2020.

In General.” Boston Daily Advertiser, 21 Nov. 1882, p. 2. Nineteenth Century U.S.  Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3006665024/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=a69f50cf.  Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.

“The Little Fairy,’ Miss Dollie Dutton.” Vermont Patriot and State Gazette, 6 Oct. 1860. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3008128629/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=b958ed02   Accessed 9 Oct. 2020.

“Multiple Classified Advertisements.” Cleveland Daily Herald, 17 Nov. 1860. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3005091288/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=9fe3466  . Accessed 9 Oct. 2020.

“Multiple News Items.” Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 18 Nov. 1882, p. 8. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3002956263/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=875010cd   Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

Robinson, John. “Little Folks on the Midway: Dollie Dutton.” Sideshow World. http://www.sideshowworld.com/43-Little-Folks/2014/Dollie-Dutton/Little-Fairy.html. Accessed 29 Aug. 2020.

Sansonetti, Anthony.  “Dollie Dutton.”  Ambassadors of Empire. http://childperformers.ca/dollie-dutton/  Accessed 29 Aug. 2020.

“Says Smallest Woman in the World Framingham’s Dollie Dutton.”  Framingham News. 9 July 1953.

“Varieties.” Cincinnati Daily Press, 28 July, 1860. Newspapers.com.  https://www.newspapers.com/image/186746232  Accessed 13 Oct. 2020.

Wayland, Mass.  Vital Records of Wayland, Massachusetts to the Year 1850.  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1910.  Internet Archives.  https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofwa00wayl  Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.

Well Spring Boston. “Local and Maine News.” Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, 6 Aug. 1859. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/apps/doc/GT3007219930/NCNP?u=mlin_b_bpublic&sid=NCNP&xid=cf7193ac   Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.

Standing on Framingham Centre Common facing north east, it is hard to miss the stately white colonial with a semi-circular porch located just south of the Plymouth Church.  Upon closer inspection one will notice the plaque which reads “The Otis Boynton House, c1825. “ Now one wonders, who was Otis Boynton?

Otis Boynton (1798-1882) was a bookbinder who settled in Framingham in May of 1822.  Otis and his wife Sarah bought a one acre house lot adjacent to Framingham Centre Common from Thomas Buckminster on March 12, 1825 on which they built their home.  

In 1826, the bookbindery business must not have been doing very well, so Otis and Sarah mortgaged their house and land to Nathan Stone for six hundred dollars. According to the agreement, if the Boyntons repaid the six hundred dollars in full within one year, the house and land would revert back to them.  Evidently this mortgage was paid off as the family continued to live in the house until 1876.  

John J. Marshall (1800- ??) joined Otis’ bookbindery business in 1833.  The business was expanded to include a book and stationary shop in addition to the bindery.  The American Antiquarian Society has in its collection a Boynton and Marshall Bookbindery’s account book for the period between May 13, 1850 and June 23, 1852.  According to this record, the company sold school books to several towns including Framingham.  They also sold novels, religious works, dictionaries, almanacs, paper, pencils and pens, ink, drawing and writing books, envelopes, greeting cards, and sealing wax.  The bookbindery bound books for printers and publishers.  Notable among these was the job of binding thousands of copies of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for the John P. Jewett Company in 1852.  The Boynton and Marshall partnership lasted until February of 1864 when the bookbindery was sold to Moses Mellen of Boston.

Otis and Sarah had six children, five boys and one girl.  The oldest son, William Courtland (1824-1825) died in infancy.  Their daughter Sarah Elizabeth (1827-1844) died of consumption at age 17 years.  Otis Howard (1832-1872) never married.  Courtland (1834- ??) and his wife Mary E. (1836-1898) had two children who died in infancy.  Timothy Spaulding (1840-1863) died at age 23 years in Newbern, North Carolina. Timothy was a member of Company C, 44th regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers in the Civil War.  It is through their third child, William Henry (1829-1905) and his wife Margaret Anna Church Boynton (1839-1927) that the Boynton name has lived on.  The couple had at least one child survive to adulthood, a son, Dr. Richard Wilson Boynton who married and had a family. 

Otis Boynton died on January 18, 1882 at the age of 84 years. He was laid to rest in Edgell Grove Cemetery alongside his wife, Sarah.  

Facts

Otis Boynton (1798-1882) was born in Lunenburg, Massachusetts to William and Eunice (Atherton) Boynton on May 18, 1798.  

Otis married Sarah Wilson (1799-1859) of Lancaster, Massachusetts on August 29, 1822.

At the time of his death, Otis owned 7 parcels of land in Framingham Centre purchased from Thomas Buckminster, Benjamin Wheeler, Moses Edgell, and others. The land was bordered by the Centre Common, Sudbury River and Auburn Street.

William Henry Boynton, Otis’ son, was an artist with no business sense.  He was friends with Nathan Dole, of Dole Pineapple fame, and Mr. Watson, partner to Alexander Graham Bell.  Dole wanted William to invest in his pineapple plantations in Hawaii, but William refused, not seeing any value in investing in a strange fruit grown half a world away.  Watson wanted him to invest in the telephone, but he saw no future for this invention!  Instead, after the Civil War, he invested in cotton, and subsequently lost the house on Framingham Centre Common.

---

Bibliography

American Antiquarian Society. Manuscript Collections.  “Boynton and Marshal Company.  Account Book, 1850-1852.” Collection Description. https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Findingaids/boynton_and_marshall_company.pdf Accessed 25 Mar. 2020.

Herring, Stephen W.  Framingham, An American Town.  The Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

Otis Boynton, 1798-1882.” Ancestry.com. https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/otis-boynton-24-5n7ycp Accessed 25 Mar. 2020.

“Otis Boynton.” Memorial no. 19189778.  Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/191879778/otis-boynton  Accessed 25 Mar. 2020.

Southworth, Margaret Boynton.  “The Story of the Otis Boynton House.”  Paper given at the meeting of the Framingham Historical and Natural History Society, Jan. 20, 1974. 

Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885.  New England History Press, 1988.

The Reverend Charles Train (1783-1849) was the minister of the First Baptist Church of Framingham for twenty-nine years. He was born in Weston, Massachusetts to Deacon Samuel Train and Deborah (Savage) Train on January 7, 1783.  Charles was educated in the local Weston Schools until the age of seventeen.He then attended the Framingham Academy for one term in preparation for college.  During the summer of 1800, he completed his college course preparation under the tutelage of the Reverend Samuel Kendall, D. D.

Charles entered Harvard College in the fall of 1801.  He was a gifted speaker and had excellent reasoning skills which he knew would serve him well in his chosen career, law. 

 Financing his education proved to be difficult.  His father was a farmer of modest means who relied upon Charles to help out on the farm.  Thus, the family was not able to offer much financial assistance to Charles. To raise money to pay for his college tuition, Charles taught school during the winter months, and he occasionally worked in the Probate Office. 

Charles  desire to enter the legal profession began to waiver in 1803, when he experienced a call to religious life.  During his last two years at Harvard, Charles wrestled with the decision to answer this call.  He finally came to accept it and began preparations for life as a Baptist minister.  In May of 1806, he preached his first sermon at the Baptist Church in Newton. After which he received a letter of license to preach the Gospel from the Newton church.  For the next seven months, Charles continued his religious studies with the Reverend Joseph Grafton while working as a substitute preacher in the area Baptist churches. To earn extra money, he continued to teach school during the winters of 1805 and 1806.  Eventually Charles left the Newton congregation and returned home to preach to the Baptists in Weston.

In the fall of 1807, Charles was offered the directorship of the Framingham Academy.   He accepted the position which he held until 1809.  The Academy thrived under his leadership.  

While director of  the Framingham Academy, Lieutenant Jonathan Maynard nominated Charles for membership in Middlesex Lodge of Freemasons.  On January 31, 1809, Charles was accepted and became an active member of the society.  He was appointed the first chaplain of the Lodge, a position he held until 1826.  He also served two years (1817, 1818) as the Worshipful Master of the Lodge.  Being an excellent public speaker, Charles was frequently asked to address many Masonic gatherings.  

During this time, he was also preaching in Framingham and Weston on alternate Sundays.  Charles worked hard to strengthen and grow these two small congregations.  The Framingham church consisted of only twenty families who worshipped in a dilapidated old meeting house in Park’s Corner.  On January 30, 1811, he was ordained in Framingham at the request of the two congregations.  In July of that same year, the two churches united and became known as the Baptist Church in Weston and Framingham.  By 1826, under Charles’ leadership, the Framingham branch grew to about one hundred members, while the Weston branch had forty.  At this time, the two congregations went their separate ways.  Charles remained in Framingham to minister, a position he held until 1839.  

The need for a new church building was great, given the tremendous increase in the size of the congregation and the physical condition of the meeting house.  Land was purchased in Framingham Centre from Captain Peter Johnson and  William Buckminster.  Plans for the building were drawn up by Solomon Willard, a Boston architect. On November 17, 1825, the cornerstone for the new meeting house was laid with Masonic honors by the Freemasons of the Middlesex Lodge. In January 1827, the congregation moved from the old meeting house in Park’s Corner to their new building. Today, the First Baptist Church is the oldest public building in Framingham.

The Reverend Train was a well respected member of the Framingham community.  In addition to his pastoral duties, he was active in state and local affairs.  Charles was very interested in education.  For many years, he served as a member of the Framingham School Committee and was a trustees of the Framingham Academy.  After he resigned the directorship of the Academy in 1809, he continued to offer college preparatory courses to students at his home.  Charles also served in the State Legislature.  He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1822 and served for six of the next seven years.  Charles lost his House of Representative re-election bid in 1827 after preaching a few very uncompromising sermons on the subject of Temperance which did not set well with the electorate!  In the winter of 1829, he was asked to fill a vacancy in the Senate, and was subsequently elected to the position the following year.  While serving in the legislature, he championed the formation of a Legislative Library, the revision of the laws regarding the Common Schools, and was involved in obtaining the charter for Amherst College.

Charles married Elizabeth Harrington of Weston on August 15, 1810.  Together they had one son, Arthur Savage Train who followed in his father’s footsteps, and became a minister.  Elizabeth died on September 14, 1814 at the age of thirty.  In 1814 or 1815, Charles built a home in Park’s Corner, where he farmed about thirty acres of land.  A year after Elizabeth’s death, Charles married her younger sister Hepzibah. She bore him four children:  Charles R. (1817-1885) became a lawyer and practiced in Framingham, served in the State Legislature, was District Attorney for Middlesex County, a Member of Congress, and the Attorney General of the Commonwealth; Althea (1821-1845);  Lucilla (1823-1841); and Sarah E. (1834-?) who moved to Bangor, Maine with her second husband.

In August 1833, Charles suffered an attack of strangury, an extremely painful condition. He suffered from this disease for the rest of his life.  During the years of 1839 to 1845, he continued to preach and minister as his health allowed.  By 1843, his disease had progressed to the point that he was forced to give up work completely.  He died on September 17, 1849.  Reverend Train was buried in Edgell Grove Cemetery in Framingham Centre. 

Facts

Park’s Corner is located on the southwest side of Framingham

Strangury: a slow and painful discharge of urine drop by drop produced by spasmodic muscular contraction of the urethra and bladder. (dictionary.com)

Solomon Willard also designed the Bunker Hill Monument, and with Dexter Hemenway, The Village Hall (Framingham’s second town hall building)

---

Bibliography

Coolidge, Charles W. “Reverend Charles Train, citizen and Freemason, Minister of First Baptist Church of Framingham, 1811-1839.” Paper presented at the Seventy Fifth Anniversary (of the dedication of the First Baptist Church) May 3,1901 (Found in the files of the Framingham History Center).

Herring, Stephen W. Framingham, An American Town. The Framingham Historical Society, The Framingham Tercentennial Commission, 2000.

“History of the First Baptist Church.” The First Baptist Church in Framingham. http://www.firstbaptistframingham.org/firstbaptist_history.htm Accessed 04 Apr. 2019.

“Middlesex Lodge: Past Masters.” Masonic Genealogy. http://masonicgenealogy.com/MediaWiki/index.php?title=Middlesex Accessed 03 Mar. 2019.

Temple, Josiah H. History of Framingham, Massachusetts, 1640-1885. New England History Press, 1988.

The Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox (1815-1888) was a 19^th century American theologian and author.  He was the youngest child of Thomas and Lucy (Porter) Tarbox of East Windsor, Connecticut.  Throughout childhood, tragedy was his constant companion.  Raised by his older sister after his mother’s death in 1816, he was orphaned at the age of nine with his father’s passing.  At this time, he was sent to live with an uncle in Vernon, Connecticut.  At age fourteen tragedy stuck once again with his uncle’s death.  Tarbox returned to East Windsor to live and work on a farm owned by Mr. John Bissell.  He stayed with the Bissells until he turned eighteen and left to teach school in North Coventry Connecticut. 

Tarbox left North Coventry in the spring of 1834 to attend the Academy of East Hartford in preparation for entrance to Yale College.  He completed his studies at Yale in 1839 and then returned to the Academy of East Hartford where he taught until 1842.  The faculty at Yale had great confidence in his superior academic achievement and elected him as tutor.  He stayed on as tutor at Yale for two years while working on his Doctor of Divinity Degree. 

In 1844, at age twenty-nine, Tarbox became the pastor at the Plymouth Congregational Church (previously known as the Hollis Evangelical Church) in Framingham, Massachusetts.   Tarbox held this position for seven years and made quite a name for himself in the community. 

With his even, friendly temperament, common sense, and pleasant manner he was embraced not only by his own congregation, but also by the greater Framingham community.  He served on the Framingham School Committee. He was selected by the townsmen to chair the committee to build two high schools, one in the Centre Village and one in Saxonville.  He was also a trustee for the Academy and for the Public Library.  In 1848, Tarbox was chosen to deliver the address at the consecration of the Edgell Grove Cemetery.  Despite theological differences, he aided the parishioners of the Unitarian Church when they were without a pastor.  The ladies of the First Parish were so grateful for his assistance that they presented him with an inscribed silver pitcher in January 1848.

During his tenure in Framingham, he married Delia A. (Adelia Augusta) Waters of Millbury, Massachusetts.  They made their home at 4 Warren Place in Framingham Centre where they raised their family.  Of their four children, only two survived to adulthood.

Throughout his life, Tarbox was a writer.  While at Yale, he contributed poems and articles to the Yale Literary Magazine and the New Englander.  In 1849, Tarbox accepted the position of editor (one of three) for The Congregationalist, a new religious publication which supported the philosophy of Jonathan Edwards.  He held this position for two years before moving on to head the American Education Society (later the American and College Education Society).  The Society aided poor, young men who wanted to become ministers.  At this time, he resigned as pastor of the Plymouth Church and as editor to The Congregationalist.  The Tarbox family then moved from Framingham to West Newton to be closer to his new office.  He held this position for thirty-three years.  After his retirement from the Society, he went on to write for the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  In 1881, he became the historiographer for the Society, a position he held until his death in 1888.

Tarbox also penned books for children.  Many were published anonymously.  His titles included The Story of Our Darling Nellie (1858, a fictionalized account of the short life of his daughter, Helen), the three volume Winne and Walter (1860), When I was a Boy: A Story of Real Life (1862), and the four-volume Uncle George Stories (1868).

The Rev. Tarbox died at his home in West Newton on May 3, 1888 after wintering in Kittrell, North Carolina where he came down with pneumonia.  After a funeral service in West Newton, he was laid to rest on May 7, 1888 in the Edgell Grove Cemetery beside his wife, Delia, and two of their children.

Facts

Feb. 11, 1815- May 3, 1888

Children: Charles Porter, 1846-1849 (died in childhood); Susan Waters, 1849-1872; Mary Porter, 1851-1876; Helen Jane, 1854-1858 (died in childhood)

Siblings: Lydia Harriet Tarbox Brown, 1810 or 12-1864; Lucy W. Tarbox Haines, 1810 or 11-1888; Thomas B. Tarbox, 1806 -1816 (died at age 10 years); Benjamin P. Tarbox, 1804-1863; Octavia Tarbox, 1801-1804 (died in childhood)

Degrees: A.M. (Master of Arts) from Yale 1842; D.D. (Doctor of Divinity) 1844; S.T. D. (Doctor of Sacred Theology) from Yale 1869; S.T. D. from Iowa College 1869

Further Reading

“Online books by Increase N. Tarbox.” Online Books Page. Ockerbloom, John Mark, editor. c1999-2018. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=TarboxIncreaseNIncreaseNiles1815-1888

---

Bibliography

Dexter, Henry Martyn. Sketch of the Life of Increase Niles Tarbox. Boston: David Clapp & Son, Printers, 1890. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=0VwEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=increase+niles+tarbox&source=bl&ots=qgeFQpNKr9&sig=nzeVeXnUKVxmhvPtOal3cdrOOBU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixlJCgzqPcAhWxmeAKHZaqDLIQ6AEIQTAH#v=onepage&q=increasenilestarbox&f=false Accessed 16 July 2018.

Johnson, Deidre. “Increase Niles Tarbox.” 19th-Century Girls’ Series. c2017. http://www.readseries.com/auth-oz/tarbox-bio.html. Accessed 16 July 2018.

“Rev. Increase Niles Tarbox.” Memorial no. 150509369. Find A Grave. 11 Aug. 2015. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/150509369/increase-niles-tarbox Accessed 15 July 2018.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University: Deceased during the Academical Year ending in June 1888. Tuttle, Morehouse, & Taylor Printers, 1888. Yale University Library, Manuscripts and Archives. http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1859_1924/1887-88.pdf Accessed 8 Aug. 2018.

Michael Hodge Simpson (1809-1884) was a nineteenth century businessman and inventor.  He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on November 15, 1809, the son of sea captain and merchant Paul S. Simpson and Abigail (Johnson Hodge) Simpson.  Eager to pursue a career in trade, Michael left school in his mid-teens to work as a clerk in Adams and Emery’s commission house in Boston.  A few years later, when the Adams and Emery house went out of business, he went to work for the mercantile firm of Jonathan Emery & Son.  It was during this time that he and a fellow clerk by the name of Charles Henry Coffin became involved in making “small deals” buying and selling hides, wool, and horns in Calcutta, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina.  These “small deals” soon became “big deals” which led Simpson and Coffin to establish their own import business – all before the age of twenty-one years!

Michael Simpson married Elizabeth Davies Kilham of Boston in 1833.  The couple had five children, only three of whom survived their parents. When in Framingham, the family live in an impressive hillside mansion called Chestnut Cottage at 50 Elm Street in Saxonville.  The family also maintained a home at 6 Ashburton Place in Boston, and a seaside cottage on Plum Island, Newburyport. 

By the age of twenty-six, Simpson’s professional life took a new path.  He went from import merchant, to inventor, and finally to woolen manufacturer.  Purchases of one million pounds of dirty, raw, low-grade wool had accumulated in his warehouses.  The raw wool was burr-filled and needed to be cleaned before it could be sold.  In the past, deburring wool had been done by hand, but it was too expensive.  So Simpson began to search for a deburring machine.  He finally chose an invention that had been developed by Samuel Couillard, Jr. of Boston.  He then set up his own mill, the Simpson Worsted Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Not completely satisfied with Couillard’s design, Simpson worked diligently to improve the machine. At last he had success when he created a machine that no longer cut the fibers as it removed the burrs.   On July 7, 1835, he was issued a patent for his new invention.  The Simpson Worsted Mill product lines included bunting, and blanket and worsted yarns.  In 1833 after the death of his partner, George H. Otis, Simpson sold his import business to Whitehall, Bond & Co., the owners of the Saxon Factory.  He moved his woolen shop and machinery from Lowell to Saxonville in early 1837. He became part owner of the Saxon Factory, which was owned by New England Worsted Company.  During the Panic of 1837, Simpson, as principle creditor, took over management of the Saxon Factory and the New England Worsted Company. 

During the 1850s, Simpson partnered with John Johnson, a mill owner from Troy New York to produce tapestry carpets.  Simpson bought out the bankrupt Roxbury Carpet Company, and moved Johnson’s tapestry carpet looms to the mills in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  Johnson was hired to manage the plant. The tapestry carpet line proved to be very successful and was produced by the company until its closing in 1973.  The Panic of 1857 brought further changes to the ownership of the Roxbury Carpet Company and the Saxonville mills.  The Saxonville mills once again failed, and Simpson with Nathaniel Francis stepped in and purchased both companies. 

During the Civil War, 1861-1865, the factory shifted from production of civilian blankets and carpet yarn to the production of blankets and blue kersey cloth for the Union Army.  The high demand for cloth and blankets kept the workers busy and the looms humming.  By 1875, the Saxonville Mills was the largest taxpayer in Framingham and employed ten percent of the population.  Saxonville was booming.

Simpson proved to be a very generous employer.  From 1871 and 1873, he built tenement housing for his employees in Saxonville.  These comfortable apartments full of the latest conveniences were highly sought after by the mill workers. Several of these buildings are still standing, and can be found on Danforth Street and Centennial Place.  In 1871, Simpson donated land for the Edwards Chapel on Elm Street.   He established the Framingham Public Library branch in Saxonville which bore the name, The Simpson Branch, until 1963 when it was renamed the Saxonville Branch. Simpson also built a series of scenic drives and parks in the area for the public to enjoy.  One such drive is Simpson Drive, a one and one half mile road on the banks of the Sudbury River which opened in 1878. The 1880s, brought more real estate development.  He converted the Methodist church and parsonage on Church Street to tenements and started work on the Simpson block of stores, a three story wooden structure on the corner of Danforth and Concord Streets.

Tragedy struck the Simpson family when Elizabeth died suddenly on June 23, 1878.  The Saxonville community was also saddened. To show respect for Elizabeth, the mills were closed on the day of her funeral.  On June 1, 1882 at the age of seventy-two, Simpson married twenty-seven year old Evangeline E. Thurston Marrs of Saxonville.

In 1880, Simpson’s son Frank, after one year at Harvard Law School, returned to Framingham to work with his father at the mills.  Frank ran the mills until his death in 1916. 

Around midnight on November 28, 1883, George Barker, a night watchman, discovered a small fire in the dry room of Mill #2.  Using buckets of water, he put out the fire and then continued on with his rounds.  When he next checked that building the fire had reignited.  The fire spread and soon the building was engulfed.  In the end almost the entire mill complex, including four main buildings and all their machinery, were destroyed. Suddenly five hundred twenty five people were out of work.  Simpson vowed to rebuild the mills, but this would take time. His workers didn’t have much time as they needed food, shelter and a pay check. Simpson assisted many of his employees during this dire time.  He continued to pay any employee who asked him for work; many of these workers helped to clean up the debris from the fire. He did not collect rent from workers living in his apartments. And he allowed his workers to use his land on Elm Street to grow some of their own food.  In October 1884, the almost completed new mill, a one story building, half the size of the original mill, opened for business with limited production capacity. It was not until December 19^th that construction was finally completed and the mill was declared fully operational. Two days later, Simpson died at his home in Boston at the age of seventy five. 

As a tribute to their former boss, the mills were shut down for the three hours of his funeral.  Michael Simpson was buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Facts

When the Number One Mill burnt to the ground in 1872, the workers and Saxonville residents, fearing that the whole village would burn, helped to contain the flames by spreading wet woolen blankets on the roofs to protect area buildings.

Simpson the inventor: in addition to his patents for improvements to the carpet/woolen making machinery, he also held patents for a better means of spraying the potato bug; a device for holding up pantaloons; and a means to kill and dispose of large numbers of grasshoppers!

Simpson the philanthropist: in addition to his generosity to the village of Saxonville, he also donated an infirmary to Wellesley College in 1881; he made a large donation to Newburyport for an addition to their library; he contributed $50,000 to build a jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack River; and he gave monies for road construction, the sprinkling of streets in summer, and other public projects.

Children: Helen Simpson Seeley, ?- 1932, lived in Cincinnati; Emmeline Simpson, 1842-1844; Grace Simpson, 1845-1904, never married; Michael Henry (Harry) Simpson, 1850 (or 2)-1872 died in Italy of malaria after his Harvard graduation; Frank Ernest Simpson, 1859-1916, never married, took over mill operations after his father’s death

Father: 1773-1854; born in York, Maine; a shipbuilder/owner, ship captain and foreign trader.

Mother: 1782-1856; born in Newburyport, Massachusetts; widow of J. S. Hodge.

Upon Frank’s death, his sister Helen inherited the business which she sold in 1919. The Roxbury Carpet Company ceased operation in the early 1970s.

---

Bibliography

MICHAEL H. SIMPSON DEAD.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Dec 22 1884, p. 4. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/493140206/fulltextPDF/14A80E0489D34D7APQ/1?accountid=9675 Accessed 12 Oct. 2018.

“Michael Hodge Simpson.” Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936. Biography In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2310003454/BIC?u=fpl&sid=BIC&xid=61fa9274. Accessed 5 Aug. 2018.

“Michael Hodge Simpson.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167207543/michael-hodge-simpson Accessed 5 Aug. 2019.

“Michael Simpson of Saxonville.” Historic Framingham. Posted Wed. 2, 2009 http://historicframingham.blogspot.com/2009/09/michael-simpson-of-saxonville.html Accessed 5 Aug. 2019.

Reid, Gene B. Michael H. Simpson and the Saxonville Mills with the Roxbury Carpet Co. Framingham Historical Society, 1982.

“SAXONVILLE’S GREAT LOSS.” Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922), Nov 30 1883, p. 4. ProQuest. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.bpl.org/hnpnewyorkbostonglobe/docview/493105783/fulltextPDF/2A9DC64EB46C4E72PQ/15?accountid=9675 Accessed 6 Nov. 2018.

Edna Dean Proctor (1829 – 1922) was born in Henniker, New Hampshire on September 18, 1829 to Captain John Proctor and his third wife Lucinda (Gould) Proctor.  After her father died in 1837, her mother married Joseph Calef  Thompson, a farmer, and the family moved to Andover, New Hampshire. Edna’s education began at home in Henniker with her mother as her teacher.  In her teens, she attended Mount Holyoke Seminary (Class of 1845), but had to drop out due to illness. Later, she continued her education in Concord, New Hampshire.  At an early age, she showed great promise as a writer and poet.  While in her teens, some of her poems were published in the local newspaper.

In 1848, Miss Proctor began teaching art and music in Woodstock, Connecticut.  Between 1850 and 1854, she taught at Mary Dutton’s school in New Haven, Connecticut.  It was here that she met Henry Bowen, a successful newspaper publisher and printer, who hired her as a tutor for his eleven children.  She moved to Brooklyn, New York to live with the Bowen family which brought her in contact with people in New York City’s highest social and intellectual circles.  Among her friends, she counted John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and other poets of the day.  Many of her poems were published in Henry Bowen’s newspapers, The Brooklyn Union and The Independent.

While in Brooklyn, she attended Sunday services at the Plymouth Congregational Church where Henry Ward Beecher preached.  He was a very inspirational speaker who was known for preaching about God’s love and his support of the abolition movement. Edna  wrote down his sermons for the years 1856 through 1858 and published them in a book entitled Life Thoughts, Gathered from the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. 

Edna Dean Proctor was a world traveler.  On a trip to Kentucky to visit an uncle in 1850, she spent some time in Cincinnati, Ohio where she met Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and sister of Henry Ward Beecher) and got involved in the anti-slavery movement.  During the Civil War, Miss Proctor wrote many poems in support of abolition and the Union cause.  In 1866, she traveled to Europe, the Middle East, and the Holy Land with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Storrs and their daughter Sarah of Brooklyn, New York.  Her diaries from this trip were the inspiration for her book A Russian Journey which describes peasant life in Russia.  Upon her return from this trip, she went to live with the Storrs family in Brooklyn. 

Edna stayed with the Storrs’ family in Brooklyn until 1885, the year Charles Storrs died.  At this time, she left Brooklyn and moved to Framingham, Massachusetts to live with her mother and sister.  While in Framingham, she lived at several locations including Union Avenue and Proctor Street.  Edna became part of the literary community around Boston and belonged to the Boston Author’s Club.

Edna Dean Proctor’s career as a poet was at its peak from the 1860’s to the early 1870s.  Later in life, she wrote poems for special occasions including “Columbia’s Banner” (1893) for the Columbus Day programs across the United States and “Framingham” (1900) for the town’s bicentennial celebration. She also published seven books of poetry throughout her lifetime- Poems in 1866 (national poems written during the Civil War); Poems in 1890; The Song of the Ancient People in 1892 (poems about a group of Pueblo Indians, the Zunis of New Mexico); A Russian Journey in 1899 (life in Russia); The Mountain Maid and other Poems of New Hampshire in 1900; Songs of America and other Poems in 1905; and The Glory of Toil and other Poems in 1916. 

Edna never married.  She died on December 18, 1922 at the age of 94 at the Kendall Hotel in Framingham.  She is buried next to her mother in the Edgell Grove Cemetery.  The Framingham History Center has one of Edna’s dresses as well as an original copy of A Russian Journey on display as part of the History in the Stitches Exhibit. 

Further Reading

“Online Books by Edna Dean Proctor.” The Online Books Page. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=ProctorEdnaDean1829-1923   Accessed 14 March 2017.

---

Bibliography

Brown, Janice.  “Henniker New Hampshire Poet: Edna Dean Proctor (1827-1923)” Cow Hampshire’s History Blog.   Posted 7 August 2007.  http://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2007/08/07/henniker-new-hampshire-poet-edna-dean proctor-1827-1923/  Accessed 1 March 2017.

Cost, Charles C. Edna Dean Proctor, Poetess of the Contoocook. Henniker Historical Society,  2008.

“Edna Dean Proctor.” House of Proctor Genealogy.  http://www.houseofproctor.org/genealogy/showmedia.php?mediaID=8639  Accessed 14 March 2017.

Lamb’s Biographical dictionary of the United States, edited by John Howard Brown.  Vol. 6.  Federal  Book Co., 1903.  P. 361.  Accessed 14 March 2017.

Perkins, George B., et al. “Proctor, Edna Dean (1829-1923).” Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia of American  Literature, vol. 1, HarperCollins, 1991, p. 882. Literature Resource Center, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do p=GLS&sw=w&u=fpl &v=2.1&id=GALEA16854557&it=r&asid=991d1f91fbe27e2519cc3a2646755beb Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.

Miss Moulton (1831 – 1922) was the teacher in the one-room schoolhouse located on the lot on Edgell Road where Nobscot Park is now.  She was an excellent teacher; in its report for 1855-56 the School Committee wrote:

Miss Moulton has the happy faculty to maintain perfect order, without producing an automaton stiffness, and without the sacrifice of constant interest in study and recitations.  Each scholar was trained to independent thought; and with an almost endless variety of exercises, interspersed among the regular school duties, there was none without a good tendency and aim.  She made her school, in every sense, a model school.

In 1860 she was moved to the intermediate school at District 1 in Framingham Centre, “composed of children of various ages, who are not far enough advanced to enter the Grammar Department.”  Here she also earned high praise from the School Committee:

Miss Moulton has been long and most favorably known as an accomplished and successful instructress, and her labors in this department have been very satisfactory…  The order of the school has been unexceptionable, throughout the year.  The children have been most faithfully drilled, in all their studies…  In mental arithmetic and reading, the exercises of the pupils give evidence of much improvement.  The unanimous feeling of the district is approbation of the excellent condition of the school.

In 1868 Miss Moulton gave up teaching and took over a bookstore in Framingham Centre.  Later she moved to her own house on High Street where she opened a shop.  She sold newspapers and magazines and various “fancy goods.”  Ladies, Like Julia Hurd of Church St., could stop in to buy stockings, handkerchiefs, sewing supplies or greeting cards.  They also brought Miss Moulton gifts of baked goods, or vegetables and fruit from their gardens and orchards.  Her old scholars came to visit as well, the Nobscot schoolchildren now grown men and women.

After fifty-two years in business Miss Moulton sold her shop in 1920 and went to live with a nephew in Vermont.  She died in 1922 at the age of ninety-one.

Why did she leave teaching when she was so good at it? Was it just because she wanted to be independent and decide for herself when her work was good? Was it because of the low salary?  In 1860-61 she earned $186 for twenty-eight weeks of teaching. Was it because of the unfairness of paying women teachers half the amount a man would earn?  (In the report of 1853-54 the School Committee announced that it had now replaced all the male common school teachers with females, thus saving enough to offer an additional term each year.) 

Facts

Miss Moulton’s father was a carpenter. He built a house, shop and barn for his daughter in the 1860s. This “Moulton Block” was torn down in the 1930s to make way for widening Route 9.

---

Bibliography

Framingham Evening News. “Leaves for new scenes, long in business here.” [25 Jun. 1920] Photocopy.

Framingham Evening News. “Agency for newspapers, half century; Miss Moulton, long in business at Framingham Centre, passes away in 91st year.” 24 May 1922. Photocopy.

Framingham in 1876: Ladies Contribution to Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. Scrapbook of a series of photographs by A. H. Folsom. [c.1976]

Framingham, Mass. School Committee. Report of the School Committee of the Town of Framingham, 1853-54; 1855-56; 1860-61. Framingham, 1854-61.

Hurd, Julia. Framingham Grandmother: The Diary of Julia Hurd, 1909-1914, transcribed by Martha Davidson. 2000. Entries for 2 Aug.1911; 2 May, 2 Dec. 1913.

Rice, Harry C. Letter, 24 Jun. 1931, to Members of the Historical Society about houses on High Street about to be razed for widening of Route 9.